It’s been talked about over at the Warrior forum and the Local Biz Builders forum that creating a local business directory and giving out free advertising to local businesses can be quite effective for acquiring new leads and clients.
So – I’ve been doing this for a few days to see how well it works and had a fairly positive experience although not quite as good as I was hoping for.
This however isn’t so much a reflection on the method, it’s because of my own allergy to going out and talking to business owners and how I’ve presented my offer.
Feel the Fear – It’s Not Actually That Bad!
That being said it’s been a very useful experience and the fact that I’ve had ‘free online advertising’ as a conversation starter as opposed to ‘do you have a website – if so is it bringing in any business’ has been a huge bonus and made it much easier to just go up and talk to people.
The above point in itself has been the greatest advantage to me so far as I’ve broken the ice when it comes to talking to people and it’s just getting easier. Not to mention some warm leads to follow up.
How Do You Just Casually Meet Business Owners?
Now I know in the Offline Gold report Andrew speaks about casually striking up a conversation with the business owner without coming across as a sales person– and I’m now finding this easier.
In my day to day life I just don’t get out talking to business owners much by chance, I need to put myself into that situation. I can’t buy something in every business I visit either. I tend to target the higher ticket businesses such as solicitors, real estate agents, kitchen fitters, carpet shops, loft extensions, jewellers etc – the ones who will make back their investment in a few sales when they hire me to market for them online.
It takes a lot to cold call. If it’s not something that comes naturally to you then like me you’re probably terrified of it. You’ll find all manners of household chores, paper shuffling and 101 seemingly more important tasks you have to do before taking that deep breath, looking in the mirror, slapping yourself round the face then walking out to the wide blue yonder and into some small local business establishments.
If you can identify with the above paragraph then I can fully recommend building a local business directory, printing up some flyers and offering free advertising as an ice breaker.
Questions They Will Ask.
Most of the people you give your flyers to will not have any idea about what you’re offering and why. The words ‘free advertising’ and ‘online business directory’ I find work quite well.
I try to strike up a conversation about the benefit it will have to them in terms of what’s different about this directory such as:
- They can have a full page of as many words as they like (it’s wordpress – each directory listing is a blog post)
- When they go to submit they get guidelines on some basic keyword targeting, copywriting and direct response techniques to get site visitors to take some action there and then
- The directory is well optimised for search engines and they can hope to see some real benefit from being in it.
Above all it’s not just another ad – it’s really focused on bringing customers in through the door or on the phone
This should be enough to get them interested in the concepts and asking more – however the questions I have been asked the most are:
- “What’s in it for you?”
- “Why is it free?”
- “What do you get out of this?”
- “What’s the catch?”
This for me has been excellent experience in learning how to talk to business owners as we all know they are not stupid and are dealing with salespeople every day. What I’ve found works best is to come out with the complete truth (duh!). I see it as an indirect asking of the ‘so what do you do?’ question.
It’s an opportunity for you to say to them:
“Well I help business owners make more money from their websites through specialist direct response online marketing techniques. I’m hoping that by introducing some of these ideas to you through this free directory – if you have an interest in getting better results from your site you might take a closer look at what I do and how I can help you with that”
The above approach has resulted in my best leads so far who I am now following up with website consultations. They appreciate the cards on the table honesty and they want to know more.
Does It Work? – It Does For Me!
The free advertising in the new exciting local business directory method is great for me. The idea of just walking down the street and into some local offline businesses to engage the owners into conversations about their marketing is way outside of my comfort zone.
As Andrew mentions in the Offline Gold report and in the free audio interview – get out there and talk to some business owners. If the thought of this terrifies you then build a directory and open with the offer of free advertising.
It just gets easier from there.